French killer's ties to al-Qaida disputed

No evidence has been found of terror training, official says

by Jamey Keaten - Mar. 23, 2012 08:36 PMAssociated Press

PARIS - Investigators have found no signs that the gunman behind a deadly string of attacks in southern France was under orders from al-Qaida or any militant group, a senior French official said Friday -- disputing Mohammed Merah's claim of terrorist ties before he died in a shootout with commandos.

France's prime minister and other officials have been fending off suggestions that anti-terrorism authorities failed to adequately monitor the 23-year-old Merah, who had been known to them for years before he carried out three deadly shooting attacks this month.

Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent who claimed links to al-Qaida, was killed in a dramatic gunfight with police Thursday after a 32-hour standoff at his Toulouse apartment. Prosecutors said he filmed himself carrying out the attacks that began March 11, killing three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three French paratroopers with close-range shots to the head. Another Jewish student and a paratrooper were wounded.

An autopsy on the gunman's body showed he suffered two fatal bullet wounds to the left temple and to the abdomen -- but that he was hit by about 20 bullets, mainly in the arms and legs, judicial and police officials said.

The head of the elite police unit, Amaury de Hauteclocque, whose mission was to take Merah alive, said his men fired only in self-defense.

Investigators looking for possible accomplices homed in on Merah's 29-year-old brother, Abdelkader, and the brother's girlfriend, described by one official as espousing an ultraconservative form of Islam. Both were detained early Wednesday, along with Merah's mother.

The brother and girlfriend were being transferred to police anti-terrorist headquarters in Paris for further questioning. Abdelkader had been implicated in a 2007 network that sent militant fighters to Iraq, but he was never charged. Merah's mother was to be released.

Meanwhile, a senior official close to the investigation said that despite Merah's claims to negotiators of al-Qaida links, there was no sign he had "trained or been in contact with organized groups or jihadists."